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The Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress also has a Digestive Health and Nutrition Clinic which focuses on the diagnosis and management of chronic digestive disorders characterized by pain and discomfort. These conditions include:

  • irritable bowel syndrome
  • chronic constipation
  • chronic diarrhea
  • dyspepsia (upper abdominal pain or discomfort)
  • gastroparesis
  • fecal incontinence
  • cyclical vomiting syndrome

The Center’s features include patient care, medical education programs, and for patients who qualify, access to appropriate clinical research studies and treatment trials investigating functional bowel disorders. These services will be offered to all patients with functional bowel disorders as well as other medical conditions which commonly co-exist with IBS, including interstitial cystitis (IC).

Viewing the patient and their symptoms as a whole, with good health as an indicator of internal balance (homeostasis) and well-being and disease as a breakdown of that physiological balance, the Center is based upon a holistic vision of health and disease. “In many ways, the Center will herald a unique approach to treatment,” says Lin Chang, MD, Director of the Digestive Health and Nutrition Clinic, and UCLA Professor of Medicine in the Division of Digestive Diseases. “A team of physicians, nurses and other healthcare specialists will apply novel treatments integrating the best and most advanced in Western biomedical techniques with the best in complementary medicine,” elaborates Dr. Chang. CNS physicians evaluate the patient’s illness experience in a holistic manner and determine the contribution of stress and other psychological factors in their gastrointestinal symptoms, then providing integrative care that combines the best pharmacological treatments with selected complementary treatments, including mind-body approaches.

For Appointments:

Emeran Mayer, MD:  (310) 825-1597
Lin Chang, MD:  (310) 825-1597
Kirsten Tillisch, MD:  (310) 208-5400

 

 

Current Clinical Research at CNS